


Bow to the Sinner

by Kuro_Guardian



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Adventure, And Zuko, Avatar Zuko - Freeform, BTW - Iroh is evil, But Zuko was an Avatar so...he's a ghost, Earn Your Happy Ending, Friendship isn't Magic, Gen, General, Guy!Toph, I Would Love to Finish This, I killed Sokka, i am an awful person, reality ensues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 02:03:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6175978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kuro_Guardian/pseuds/Kuro_Guardian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Displaced in space and time young Tenzin must play the part of Avatar until he can find the real one… if there is an Avatar now. Can a half-remembered bed time story see him through or will he have to invent a savior from whole cloth?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Bow your head

Dusk slides down the time worn walls like oil across water as a young boy almost dances around a shallow pool. Slender and small the child looks no older than six, though he is just nearly ten and in another year or two will earn his arrows as a master. In truth the look of intensity on his face belies both the apparent serenity of his movements as well as his age. A turn and he is still… from the shadows steps his father a tall, bearded man whose bare scalp is marked with a blue arrow tattoo. Gray eyes study the boy with something like disquiet, before a calloused hand reaches out to brush over his stubble dusting his scalp. "What are you doing now Tenzin?"

An untidy shrug and then the boy is stepping back eyes riveted to the floor. Frail shoulders draw up as Tenzin gnaws on his lip the muscle in one cheek seizing. "Training." Ignoring the sigh from his father Tenzin tries to relax with little success. Why his father insists on acting as through there is something wrong with his studies he doesn't know. The space between is a fascinating area of study and if he is going to really earn his tattoos then he will need to present something new… right? Otherwise… otherwise Bumi is right and he is just a faker to the title of air nomad. And he isn't really.

Kneeling Tenzin's father Aang places a heavy hand on each of his small shoulders – "Tenzin, when I say to stay away from certain things I do so for a reason. I know you are trying to learn about the Void and its applications – but it is a dangerous subject." Taking out a rosary the elder airbender conjures up a gently swirling current that makes the necklace spiral. "Life is the wind that sweeps through the Void, and where it touches there is possibility. Even as there is one bead following another on this necklace there are a million, million possible worlds spiraling into infinity – and the layers between them are so thin they might as well not exist sometimes. In opening yourself to the Void, you open yourself to these possibilities – and if they touch you back there is nothing I can do for you."

This is – this is something amazing. The Avatar is not bound by the rules of normal men, and to hear that there is nothing he can do in this situation… Something very like excitement bubbles up inside his bird-like chest as the boy studies the necklace without a trace of interest. "I'm only trying to see how far I can go. I'm not going to actually do anything father. You worry too much." And even as the words leave his mouth Tenzin knows he has said the wrong thing. He doesn't need to see his father tense or watch his almost periwinkle blue eyes shutter or his jaw tighten. He is still unprepared for the suddenly gale-force winds that all but lift him from his feet. His father's eyes glow.

This isn't his father – this is the Avatar and it is wondrous. Searching for the thread within the wind Tenzin finds himself riding it even as the strength of the sudden storm forces him to swallow his laughter. There is no sense to be found in the cacophony of the winds around him, but that is almost better than fine. Closing his own eyes he can feel the absence that breathes – the space between. Grasping it he pulls with his spirit and then –

He is blinded by the light or

He is blinded by complete darkness or

The weight of each wave is a hand forcing his head underwater.

"Tenzin!" His father voice multiplied by a thousand and the winds are calming even as the cold begins to pull him under. Cold as a physical thing – a thing with teeth and claw-tipped hands. Flailing about until his small hands scrape against something smooth, massive, and hard. Ice. He is trying to catch a grip on ice and it is not working – but maybe… Even as an airbender he cannot hold his breath indefinitely and the need for air is making concentration difficult. Still – success is the feeling of suction between palm and ice. Slowly the distance between surface and depth is closed, or at least it seems so although it couldn't possibly have taken that long. As he pulls in one wheezing breath after another it is all he can do not sink back into the relatively warmer water. "Look another one!"

Skin too numb to tell, but hands gloved in what might be fur yank him up – or try to. "Shit. I think his hands are frozen to the ice." A harsh voice… well no. Actually if not for the apparent frustration the voice would be very pleasant like honeyed chocolate. A higher voice answers with something like concern. "Well how the hell am I supposed to do that? It isn't like I have any control over my fucking firebending! You know damn well what would happen if – oh fuck you!" God they're worse than Bumi and Kya which is really saying something. A twist of the wrist has his right hand free. After the world cuts back in a minute or two of struggle frees the other hand. None of this of course helps to warm him and he can feel himself succumbing to a final darkness.

The transition from unconsciousness to awareness is like the glimmer of a minnow in shallow waters. Light flickers across the darkness behind his eyelids accompanied by an assault of odors. With a groan the child turns his face into the soft fur surrounding him. Soft fur? "I think he's waking up now Sora. I'm just glad one of them is okay." Ignoring what that statement could mean Tenzin gropes for the source of his rising panic. There is something about his position and the things he smells that is very, very wrong – "Oh do shut up Katara!"

He just barely manages to deflect the reflexive attacks the two girls toss at him. He is almost sorry about doing so however as a wave of vertigo nails him between the eyes. Falling over the child moans as he buries his face in the soft white fur that smells so much like Oogi's… "No." Carefully pushing himself up this time the child actually looks at his impromptu bedding. There is too much fur here and – Here is a bowl of smooth ice tinted blue with a jagged rim. The sky is a black wave topped with a purple crest racing to drown the sun. The constellations are in the wrong places. "No." Vaguely Tenzin realizes he might be starting to hyperventilate as a breeze begins to pick up.

This realization takes second place to the problem of two girls in Water Tribe dress staring back at him. The one on the left looks odd with her Fire Nation amber eyes and ivory skin against the dark blue of her water tribe clothing. Her hair hangs unimpeded down her back, and she could ve anywhere from 10 to fifteen. The fire hanging above her palm flickers as though caught in a gale, but the look in her eyes promises dire consequences if he writes her off. Interesting, but not especially pressing all things considered. No, the problem here is the one on the right with her darker skin, wide blue eyes, and heart-shaped face. The difference between this girl and the woman in a certain family portrait is vast yet they are obviously the same person. And that is not okay. It isn't. "No."

The fire nation brat is saying something, but while he can see her lips moving the rushing in his ears is entirely too loud. Time is a series of photos – the girls who look so very much alike. The girls staring at him with apprehension. A hill that is actually a flank. A horn around which is tied a bit of leather. A blue arrow outlined in fur and – "No." The cold part of himself he never addresses neglects to listen as it puts it all together. The girl who looks like his mother as a child is moving toward him and that is not okay. The beast they are standing on is not breathing and that is not okay. The smell that lies over everything is related to the red stained fur he is not going to acknowledge. The firebender is crouched next to some roasted meat. There is a bloody machete beside her. "Where's Aang?" The firebender looks to right and there is a shape under an Earth Nation blanket. The world swims away.

"Hey! Wake up idiot!" A thoughtless wave of the hand results in a squawk and smug laughter. Opening eyes that somehow burn with fatigue Tenzin carefully sits up. It's daylight again and the girls from last night are still being rather unhelpfully disturbing. "Damn it Katara stop laughing and help me!" The fire nation kid is frantically trying to keep her grip on the ice, but her panic is of no aid to her as it is melting everything around her. "I told you to leave him alone. Maybe you should learn to listen to me. I am the big sister after all." Okay. Okay – his mother doesn't have a younger sister. The figure out of the corner of his eye doesn't have to mean anything just yet. With a frantic twist the aunt he doesn't have is on the ice mumbling things his mother would wash his mouth out with soap over. "Thanks a lot witch boy."

"I'm not a witch you stupid Fire Nation Bitch!"

Silence buries them like an avalanche as both girls stare at him with something approaching wonder, as though he has said something never thought of. Firebitch is the first to shake it off as she literally breathes fire. "I am water tribe you ignorant asshole!" Whatever else she might have been about to say is lost as she falls through the ice courtesy of the heat she gives off in waves. "Idiot." Ignoring the drama happening before him the young airbender decides to approach the bogeyman in the corner. If he is right then… This doesn't make sense. How can he be alive if his father is dead? So he must be wrong then it's the only way. Before he can rethink his logic he's pulled off the sheet and – he vomits over the side of the ice. Idly comes the thought that blue tattoos don't show up very well against blue skin. He's vomiting bile and all of a sudden he's hungry.

"Hey. Are you okay?" The one that looks like his mother – actually is his mother if he's honest with himself. "Do I look okay?" He doesn't mean to be rude… actually yes he does. He does mean to be rude, because quite frankly this is complete bullshit. He needs an avatar to get home, and his only recourse is dead. Well no. There should be a water tribe avatar somewhere around here. "Who is the avatar now?" The whispered argument between the two sisters abruptly stops - "Why jackass? Gonna cast a spell on 'em with your stupid witch powers?" The ugly grin she wears is short-lived thanks to one hard smack to the head curtosy of her older sister. Rolling her eyes at firebitch's writhing on the …ground?... Katara gives him a gentle smile and it is all he can do to keep from hurling again. "There is no avatar."


	2. Clap Twice

“What?”

Not the smartest comeback, but all things considered it’ll have to do. “The cycle broke when Prince Zuko the Avatar was cut down by Iroh the Mad. There aren’t any airbenders left after all.” The helpless shrug she gives ought to be heartbreaking especially since he knows his mother – and in all his father’s stories she has never ever given up hope. Unfortunately it’s a bit much to take in all at once – his father is dead, the water tribe avatar is somehow dead, the earth kingdom avatar is somehow dead, and somehow the fire nation managed to breed then murder another fucking avatar. Also uncle Iroh the kindest, most spiritual man ever murdered his beloved nephew the fucking avatar. Great. Wonderful. Fan-fucking-tastic really. “How?”

It’s not a long story, but it’s not a nice one either. Over a hundred years ago the Avatar Roku was left to die by Sozin the Tyrant. Twelve years later Sozin’s Comet lit up the sky as the Air Nomads were burnt to ash in a frenzy of hatred and fear. For over fifty years the tribes of water searched desperately for the next avatar even as they fought a losing battle of attrition with the Fire Nation. Finally they found the avatar – Avatar Nala of the Southern Tribes, but she was a disappointment with her weak lungs and lack of hearing. Still they tried to improve her only to lose her when her traitorous father drowned his six year old daughter and then slit his own throat. So then the Earth Kingdom began searching its borders for the reborn avatar.

It took them only ten years to find the child – Avatar Kimba of Gaoling who rode the winds as easily as he commanded the earth. It seemed he would be the hero the world needed, but then the Battle for Ba Se Sing took place and during his destruction of the Fire Nation army he was felled by Iroh with his sons Lu Ten and Gai. The only good thing resulting from that was that he managed to snatch both Lu Ten and Gai into the other world along with him. Losing both his sons broke Iroh’s will to siege and he withdrew into seclusion. Meanwhile a search was made to find the next Avatar by the fire nation and the rest of the world despaired.

They were right to. The next Avatar had been born into the royal family and when they found he would not bow to their demands they cut him down. Not satisfied with that they lied saying he was threat who had to be disposed of, one who wielded all the elements and had the heart of a bully. No one really believes that however, especially in light of his mother’s revenge against both Iroh and Ozai. It is said she poisoned both of them so that Iroh went mad and Ozai was left both flameless as well as sterile. She then ran away with the Princess. Anyway Avatar Zuko managed to decapitate Firelord Azulon with a blade of earth before he died in the dirt ending the cycle. His death brought little peace however as the fire nation descended into violent civil war, the earth kingdom turned upon the Colonies, and the water tribes withdrew into themselves like cowards.

“Yeah so now the next tragedy is that Sozin’s Comet is only a year or so off the horizon. The day that Comet flies by is the day this world dies.” That would be a far more dramatic statement if firebitch  weren’t in the middle of gutting up poor Appa while her sister froze the pieces into blocks to be bent before them. Also there is the rather irritating matter of being bound that might be distracting Tenzin something awful. Trust the flame happy idiot to be really good at knots. “I hate you.” Katara actually flinches, but Sora just snorts steam before going on with her work. “If it makes you feel better the feeling is totally mutual.” There has to be a way to gut her without getting in trouble… but how?

“Um.” Wavering at his side Katara is going to end up biting through her lip if she isn’t careful. Doesn’t mean he’s going to help her out or do anything really besides stare a hole through her forehead, but… “What should we do with um… Aang?” Shit. There really isn’t anything to do with Aang except to give him the proper burial. “I’ll deal with it. He needs to be buried in the sky and I’m the only one who knows how to do it.” Manfully ignoring the mutters from auntie firebitch that might be about lunatics and heathen rituals Tenzin considers how the hell he’s supposed to do this. “I’ll need a boat and some way to preserve Aang until we can get to the Southern temple. Also if your sister says one more thing I’m going to hurt her.”

“You and what ar-” The grin pulling at Tenzin’s lips is rather painful actually, but more important are the cut cords of rope littering the ground. “Do us all a favor and shut up you unnatural little mongrel.” And that’s when his mother slapped him hard enough to take him off his feet. On the one hand his face is numb enough from the cold for this not to be too painful, on the other hand it still hurts like a bitch. That ugly smirk on Sora’s face isn’t helping at all. “Apologize!” The red loogie he hocks on her boots is the only answer he feels like giving. However, that seems to do the trick as she is apparently fascinated with it. Spitting into the ocean Tenzin gets up and heads toward the right where he can see a nice piece of unbroken ice. He can do this all he has to do is concentrate.

Eyes closed he twists into the fourth form and with a flick of the wrist a blade of wind cleaves into the iceberg before him. Carefully he shapes out a box half again as large as the body it will need to hold and relatively thicker. With the second form he levitates the structure over to his position. It isn’t exactly perfect, but then again it doesn’t need to be. It just needs to be fucking functional. “Hey. You just gonna stare at that or what?” A lazy backhand sends the idiot into the water with a loud splash. Even so his least favorite aunt is correct. Although it is tempting to just sort of shut down right here. How… What is he supposed to do after all? He is not the avatar and without the avatar there can be no end to this war… right?

“Why are you two out here? I thought hunting was a men’s activity out here?” Carefully bending the water from her sister’s shivering body Katara answers with a studied nonchalance: “There isn’t anyone else left around to. They’ve all gone to war.” She says something else, but it’s noise in the background as he kneels beside the child who would have been his father. He’s so small and cold. The ugly sound he makes surprises no one more than Tenzin himself. The tepid tears that fall on Aang’s face are only slightly less random. He doesn’t cry. The sun rises in the east, there are five nations, only the avatar bends the four elements, and Tenzin doesn’t cry. A hand hovers over his shoulder, but refuses to touch him. Not much of a surprise considering how he and Sora regard each other. Meanwhile Katara kneels beside him and takes his hand in both of her own. “I’m sorry your friend is gone, but I’m here – we’re here and you’re not alone.” It is probably rude to laugh in her face, but considering the circumstances…


	3. Step to Your Left

Laying on the ice platform Katara kindly conjured up for him and his father’s coffin Tenzin has little to do besides think. On the one hand it is rather two convenient that shortly after his father’s words he would be hurled into a different dimension. On the other hand he is an airbender yes, but he is not the avatar so this is kind of counter-intuitive. Unless the spirit-blessed plan is to wait for him to hit puberty find the right girl, bed her, and somehow breed the avatar’s next body. That could work.  Of course, that would be easily 21 years too late, but no one ever said the spirits were exactly brilliant.

Maybe… what? Well Katara still exists and she has a sister that firebends. If they find Toph then that is all four elements right there. Maybe they could attack as a team? But then who would rule the fire nation? Not Iroh certainly and not Ozai either. Also it had taken a team effort in the real world that relied in large part on Aang’s being the avatar. So… “This is so much shit.” “What was that witch boy?” Rolling over Tenzin ignores the brat and focuses instead on gnawing a hole through his lip. ‘So much shit.’

There has to be an avatar somewhere about – maybe it skipped an element or something? Maybe there are a couple of airbenders around? Like – like they just don’t know they’re airbenders. ‘Witch boy.’ Yeah, like they think they’re witches or something. ‘If I can find the Avatar then I can train him in airbending. I can take him or her I guess to the Northern tribe for water training. I find Toph in the Earth Kingdom hopefully, and then I just have to hunt down a firebending teacher… Fuck.’ That will have to all wait however because first Aang needs to be dealt with. Hopefully the tribe will let him borrow a boat he can rig a sail up to. Or he can try creating a nice wave… because tsunamis are totally safe. His weary sigh trails off into a yawn.

The sound of excited murmurings is what wakes him up. Crowds have never been his thing, although he has gotten somewhat used to them thanks to being the Next to Last Airbender. Peeping through his eyelashes does nothing to calm him. A sizable crowd of women, children, and elders are gaping at him and the ice block holding his father. Another difference – the tribe had been much smaller in the past of his father’s stories. Also there had been no men at all, but here there are quite a few very old males. One of them is abstemiously arguing with Katara, while Sora stands to the side strangely quiet. He needs to hear what’s going on.

Rolling to his side in what he hopes is a natural attitude Tenzin concentrates on what is being said over yonder. At first there is nothing but distortion, but then comes a querulous voice as thin as the plot in an Ember Island play. “The boys must go as quickly as possible. They will only bring trouble with them. That one of them is dead is a bad omen in and of itself. Would you have the attention of the Fire Nation returned here? Was not there involvement bad enough the last time?” The harsh crack of a flesh to flesh and then shouting as the old man calls someone –Katara?- all out of her name. Then a new voice smooth and tattered as rent silk… a woman’s voice heavy with fatigue. “What is going on here? Why did no one waken me?”

It’s tempting to open his eyes, but the crowd will put him off his concentration… Still the new voice doesn’t sound old and that means it probably isn’t Kanna. So who else…? “…just because you happen to be married to Hokoda! It is not the place of a woman to stand above the wisdom of a man in these things! Shameful enough that we must depend on the efforts of two half-grown girls to provide meat and game for our diets.” ‘Kya.’ Of course! But wait what does that mean regarding Sora? And what the hell happened to Sokka? It’ll have to wait ‘til later. A sound like wind through treetops rises from the crowd. “This is not the north. We do not measure what dues a person is allowed or expected based upon what sits between their legs. And even if we did I would still stand above you and your so-called wisdom. Get out of my sight you toothless old bastard or be shamed again before the tribe.” Someone laughs and then the crowd is roaring as someone walks away quickly one step lagging behind the other.

“Who are these boys Katara?” It’s strange hearing his mother actually struggling for eloquent, but she is just a child here. Maybe fourteen years old? And Sora is what nine or ten years old? They seem older especially compared to Bumi and Kya. “Airbenders? Impossible. There has not been an airbender in over forty years –not since the Fire Nation’s tracker program proved a success.” Katara really needs to stop muttering, because the crowd is getting louder by the moment. “The boy in the ice has the tattoos? How? Besides which who is the other boy?” “A massive jackal-ass and he’s awake by the way.” Making a mental note to smother auntie firebitch in her sleep Tenzin sits up with a groan. Making a show of stretching he is trying to count the bodies around him by their breaths. ’68.’ Not counting those in buildings and the watchmen on the cliffs.

There isn’t any point in running so – “My name is Tenchi and the boy in the ice is Aang. We are two of the last airbenders – well I guess there is just me and maybe the avatar wherever they are.” Opening his eyes he winces a bit at the glare off the ice. Still he can see well enough to tell that his estimate is a bit off and there are actually more people surrounding him. He is correct in that the woman before him can only be his grandmother. ‘Crap Kya looks a lot like her namesake.’ Said namesake is a lovely woman, but she is also a sad looking one. Grief has craved her face into a mask that sits over the emptiness behind her eyes. Why? “I’m not going to stay or ask you to shelter me. I just need to borrow a boat… well okay I’d to have one of your boats… so me and Aang can leave.”

Katara looks like she would argue about it, but a glance at her mother’s face has her biting her lip again. Sora however has a thoughtful expression on her face. “Why little one? What could you possibly have to do out there?” Holding his hands out to her as though in offering Tenzin can only give the barest hint of a smile. “He’s the only family I have in this world and I have to see him done right. I have to give him back to the sky and his people.” Kanna nods before turning her attention to the ice coffin – “And you can’t do your rites here? It isn’t safe out in the greater world.” Unspoken, but heard are the words, “particularly not for an airbender child”.  Standing and sketching a quick if deep bow Tenzin shakes his head no. “I can’t stay here – I have to find and train the avatar. Sozin’s comet is coming and if it reaches us before the avatar  can make his or her stand… well.” With an odd little shrug Tenzin looks away rather uncomfortable with the way Kya’s eyes soften.

“Fine. I will give you one of our skiffs as well as provisions Tenchi.” Her gentle smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes. Still it’s enough – and then he’s surrounded by children as she calls the adults away. “Why are you bald?” “Aren’t you cold?” “What kind of name is Aang?” “Where are you going?” “I want to meet the Avatar!” “Are you sad your friend’s dead?” “Did the Fire Nation do it?” “Where’s your Air Bison?” The barrage of questions is getting to him, but it’s seeing the children climbing on his father’s coffin that sets him off. Throwing out his arms he blows all of them into a nearby snowdrift before conjuring up a cyclone and using it to move him and Aang to a nearby bluff. As the children struggle to dig themselves out some of them weeping hysterically while clutching limbs Tenzin folds in on himself. Back against his father’s coffin Tenzin quietly begins to weep.

“Hey! What da hell was that for?! You almost broke Megumi’s arm – and you did give Kohaku a nosebleed. I thought Airbenders were supposed to be peaceful or something.” Thankfully Sora’s loud mouth gives him a chance to wipe his face before she can see his tears. Still she has a point this time so – “We are, but I’m kind of having a bit of a panic attack here. I’m a long way from home. My friend is dead. I’ve got no Bison. And Sozin’s comet is right around the corner. So I might be a bit stressed.” With the last syllable ending on a squeak and his eyes the size of saucers the little airbender is more than a bit stressed. “Calm down stupid. We can get you the teachers you need. I guess… you’ll have to figure airbending on your own.”

The shushing of the tides fills the sudden awkwardness between them. Head tilted awkwardly and mouth agape Tenzin looks like he’s been told the moon is made of crystal. Carefully, as though dealing with a wild saber-toothed moose, the boy asks with all seriousness – “Have you hit your head recenetly? Why would I need teachers?” Giving a (somehow) attractive snort the lanky child shakes her head wearily, “Come off it. You’re the avatar obviously and the dead kid was your teacher, right? I mean that’s why he had the blue arrows instead of you.” ‘God she looks proud of herself for this idea. Idiot.’

“Nope. I’m an airbender and only an airbender. Aang was the avatar, but as you can see he’s dead now.” Watching her face sort of fall isn’t nearly as pleasing as he’d thought it’d be. As her eyes brighten with tears he isn’t sure what to think. Thoughtlessly his hands fan the air as he stutters over a dozen half-starts. It’s a relief when her face hardens – “I know what I look like.” The look on her face… he drops his focus to her clenched fists instead. She’s so tense she’s trembling with the effort. “Fire nation bitch. Golden-eyed bastard of a whore. Slut’s daughter. Worthless mongrel. Half-bred piece of shit. I know what they call me – I know what everyone thinks about me. The daughter of a rapist, the price for my sister’s safety, and the sorry trade for my brother’s life… that’s what I am; but I want to be more than that.”

Moving like a monsnake she has him trapped again Aang’s container. Her tawny eyes have brightened into something like ambrosia stoked by an inner fire. “I want my mother to stop crying. I want Hakoda to look at me with something besides disgust. I want to find the bastard who fathered me and castrate him. I want people to see me and not a firebending tragedy waiting to happen! So just let me help you, you fucking idiot!”  Her breath is deafening in the silence following her shouts. He should say something, anything right now. Her forehead is resting against his collarbone. Her dark hair shines in the moonlight like spilt ink, and it smells like smoke… like Uncle Zuko’s after he’s trained. Abruptly it’s like being strangled, but as he tries to jerk away her hands latch onto him. “Please Avatar Tenchi. I can help you.” ‘Fuck.’ “Fine… you can help me look for the Avatar. Now get off me!” With a hard shove he knocks her off the bluff. Eh, maybe he overreacted? Thankfully there is a splash and then – “You flaming asshole! I’m going to kill you!” He really shouldn’t laugh, but then again… “Loser.”


End file.
